PhotoStructure for Synology Container Manager

Last Updated: January 20, 2026 by Michael Kahn. Published: February 16, 2023.

PhotoStructure is a self-hosted photo management program that lets you organize, deduplicate, and browse your entire photo library without handing your memories to Google or Apple. I’ve been running it on my Synology NAS for 3 years now, and it’s become essential for managing 3,000,000+ photos across decades of digital cameras, phones, and scanned prints.

This guide covers everything I’ve learned setting it up, including running multiple libraries (one for personal, one for work) and the performance tweaks that made browsing actually usable.

Table of Contents

• What You Need
  • System Requirements
• Installing PhotoStructure in Container Manager
• Docker Settings
  • Port Settings:
  • Volume Settings Example
  • Advanced Settings Example:
  • Advanced Settings Additional
  • Advanced Settings Networking:
  • Shared Folder Settings
• Setting Up the First Container
• Setup the Second Container
• Performance
• Key Takeaways
  • Recommended Volume Mounts
  • Soft-Delete Support (v2024.4+)
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • How much RAM does PhotoStructure need on Synology?
  • Which Synology models can run PhotoStructure?
  • Can I run multiple PhotoStructure libraries on the same Synology?
  • Why is PhotoStructure slow when browsing my library?
  • Should I use the beta or stable Docker image?
  • How do I update PhotoStructure on Synology?
  • Does PhotoStructure work alongside Synology Photos?
  • What’s the difference between Host and Bridge network modes?
  • How do I back up my PhotoStructure library?
  • Can PhotoStructure import from cloud services like Google Photos?
  • What happens if I delete a photo in PhotoStructure?
  • How long does the initial library scan take?
• Changelog

PhotoStructure is a self-hosted photo management program that provides cloud functionality while allowing you to keep data yours. It automatically organizes and deduplicates your photos utilizing lossless methods. System-agnostic, you can take your photo library and run it on Windows, Mac, Synology, Linux, or pretty much any other operating system you throw at it.

What You Need

• PhotoStucture (Coupon MKLIBRARY10 for 10% off Plus)
• Synology NAS
• Container Manager (DSM 7.3.x+)

System Requirements

Memory: PhotoStructure needs a minimum of 2GB RAM during imports. If your Synology has only 1GB, you’ll hit ENOMEM (Out of memory) errors and the container will crash.

CPU: Any 64-bit Intel, AMD, or ARM processor works.

Storage: Plan for the .photostructure metadata folder to grow. For my 700k+ library, it’s around 138GB. Putting this on an SSD makes a noticeable difference.

I want photo organization, but need to separate my work from personal photos. On my Synology NAS, I already have two Volumes and Shared Folders setup, where I have placed photos of each purpose. I have Photos, which is for my personal media, and F64, which contains all of my photography for hire related media.

The end result has 2 different PhotoStructure Container Manager containers running concurrently. Each can be accessed by changing the port, with 1787 being PhotoStructure’s default. 1788 isn’t used by any other service on my Synology, so I felt it safe to push the number up 1.

This method could easily be reproduced and adapted for additional Photo Libraries beyond the two.

Installing PhotoStructure in Container Manager

Open up Container Manager and click on the Registry tab. Type in PhotoStructure.

Double-click on the photostructure/server result. You can choose to either get the Latest tag, or if you’re adventurous and want to check out the newest photo management features, find the beta tag and get that.

After hitting Apply, you’ll know the Image is ready when there is a notification from Container Manager. and the blue Downloading text gets to 100% and disappears.

Click on the Container Tab in the Container manager and the Create button, then select the image you just downloaded for PhotoStructure. These are my settings:

Docker Settings

Before you dive in, it’d be a great idea to review the official documentation on installing PhotoStructure for Servers.

Here’s a screenshot of what my Advanced Settings look like to setup dual running Photostructure Libraries.

Port Settings:

Leave defaults. Ports will be changed through Advanced Settings directives.

Volume Settings Example

File/Folder: /docker/photostructure Mount Path: /ps/library
File/Folder: /Photos Mount Path: /Photos

Advanced Settings Example:

PUID needtofindforyou
PGID 100
PS_HTTP_PORT 1787

Advanced Settings Additional

If you’re using some Synology models, their processor will choke up on multiple libraries processing at the same time. I have this issue with the 1821. Official PhotoStructure support advised to set this setting to 0, which enables single threads, and solves a lot of performance issues with this setup.

PS_CPU_BUSY_PERCENT 0

Advanced Settings Networking:

I set the Network to Host, and it just remains simple for me. Only local access or access through Tailscale is allowed. If you know more than me about networking, then setup Bridge.

At the last Create Container screen, verify your settings, and the checkbox to run it after creating checked, then click Done.

Shared Folder Settings

I discovered during a debugging session with PhotoStructure’s developer, Matt, that Shared Folders needed to have the specific user added to Permissions. Just having a group added to the Shared Folder may not be enough in a lot of use cases. Even if your user is the administrator.

As an added security measure, I created a new user called PhotoStructure and added the user to just the Volumes needed for the app to run.

From File Station, right-click on the Shared Folder with your photo library and click Properties. Hit the Permissions Tab, and then the Create button to add yourself as a specific user.

Make sure Read and Write permissions are granted.

Hit Done on the Permission Editor Screen, hit the checkbox to Apply to all Folders/Subfolders/etc, then click Save. Wait for the permissions to be applied then move onto the next step.

Start or Run your Container, and it should show up with a green light and display info similar to this in General:

Go to the Health page of your PhotoStructure docker container, which will be at http://127.0.0.1:1787/health (replace your own IP), and it should look like this this next screenshot.

Setting Up the First Container

In the Advanced Settings, setting the PS_HTTP_PORT option and specifying volumes was key to differentiating between a first and second container.

Whether you plan on running one container, two, or more, having that set will allow you to quickly adapt to your needs.

The default port is 1787, which I specify as well, just so there is no confusion with Docker later on.

Setup the Second Container

There will be one minor difference as you set up the second Photo Library. Well, two. First, you will specify a different volume. The second is changing the port on your Environment Variables.

Here’s how my second container settings look:

This modified Environment setting is key: PS_HTTP_PORT 1788

You’ll see my Volume settings are also changed. Both the PhotoStructure library folder and which photos are being pulled from.

The Volume settings are mapped to the second work Volume, so each Library and Docker files are on that particular volume. This allows me to totally separate Photo Libraries and settings, and quickly pick up and move around each one as needed. I can also access them from new systems without them ever interacting with one another.

Performance

One of the best things I did was move the .photostructure folder onto its own NVME drive (WD Red SA500) on my Synology NAS. My combined libraries of around 3,000,000 photos and video take about 2TB of data, so I bought a NVME drive and moved the libraries onto that. Huge performance gains in browsing and loading thumbnails. I highly recommend doing the same if your setup allows.

Here’s my article on Synology NVMe Installation.

In watching how the two Container Manager containers perform, PhotoStucture does a great job in resource use and not overloading the server as it processes photos or video. I’ve noticed the two Libraries seem to go back and forth in using FFmpeg and other resources, with neither eating up everything at once.

I did notice after installing PhotoStucture updates, having the Libraries rebuild at the same time cause both Containers to crash. I’d only run one at a time until the rebuild completes. At least that’s what the processor on my Synology 1821+ could handle.

I’ve been able to run everything else alongside PhotoStucture without any issues.

Sync is run every 24 hours, at 2am by default. If you make lots of changes to the folder structure on your own, you may want to restart sync manually.

If you’re interested in more photography tips and tricks or your workflow, check out the article on Camera Accessories.

Key Takeaways

• Container Manager required: PhotoStructure runs on Synology NAS via Container Manager (DSM 7.3+)
• Memory matters: Minimum 2GB RAM required during imports; 1GB causes crashes
• Beta vs Stable: Beta image gets features faster; stable for production reliability
• Multiple libraries: Run concurrent containers on different ports (1787, 1788) for work/personal separation
• NVME performance boost: Moving the .photostructure folder to a NVME dramatically improves browsing speed for large libraries
• Permissions: Create a dedicated PhotoStructure user with explicit folder access, even if you have admin

Recommended Volume Mounts

Per PhotoStrucuture documentation, these are all the recommended mounts. If you are running the entire Container off a NVME, you can probably skip the extras.

Container Path	Host Path Example	Purpose	Notes
/ps/library	/docker/photostructure	Library database and metadata	Required. Put on NVME if possible
/ps/tmp	/docker/photostructure-tmp	Scratch space for processing	16-32GB free recommended, NVME preferred
/ps/config	/docker/photostructure-config	System settings	Optional, defaults to /ps/library
/ps/logs	/docker/photostructure-logs	Application logs	Auto-deletes after 1 week
/Photos	/volume1/Photos	Your photo library	Add :ro suffix for read-only

Read-only imports: If you don’t want PhotoStructure modifying your original files, append :ro to the volume mount. For example: /volume1/Photos:/Photos:ro. I do this for archived folders I don’t want touched.

Soft-Delete Support (v2024.4+)

PhotoStructure now supports soft-delete instead of permanent deletion. When you delete a photo, it moves to a .Trash-[uid] folder on the same volume instead of being immediately removed.

To enable soft-delete on a volume:

1. Create a .Trash-1000 folder (replace 1000 with your PUID) at the root of the volume
2. Ensure PhotoStructure has write access to this folder

To disable soft-delete entirely, add this environment variable:

PS_TRY_SOFT_DELETES=false